News

By Chloe Yunes, Communication Intern, UNDP Lebanon

UNDP’s Regional Project on “Anti-Corruption and Integrity in the Arab Countries” (ACIAC) deployed its experts to Tunisia in May 2015 to reinvigorate the process of developing the national anti-corruption strategy following the elections that took place in 2014, which yielded the first elected government under the new Constitution.

In the same month, ACIAC also supported the organization of a national workshop in Palestine to enable the formulation of recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of its financial disclosure system with the aim of increasing transparency and fighting illicit enrichment.

The assistance provided to Tunisia was made possible through close collaboration with UNDP Tunisia and key national partners, particularly the National Anti-Corruption Commission in Tunisia.

On 4 May, more than 100 participants attended the event organized for this purpose under the title “towards the adoption of the national anti-corruption strategy in Tunisia”.

Discussions helped to reactivate the process after it had stalled for almost two years due to various political and technical reasons.

Focus was put on how to align the strategy with the provisions of the Constitution and the new institutional landscape.

Participants, however, did not reach a conclusive agreement on the concrete way forward towards this goal. As such, more effort is needed to enable the formulation of a detailed work plan in this regard.

For more information on this event please go to http://www.undp-aciac.org/resources/ac/details.aspx?aid=438

On the other hand, the workshop in Palestine was attended by more than 60 participants representing key institutions from the public and private sectors, civil society and academia.

It was held on 11-12 May and organized by the Palestinian Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) in partnership with the Arab Anti-Corruption and Integrity Network (ACINET) and with joint support of UNDP and UNODC.

The workshop deepened participants’ understanding of the requirements for effective financial disclosure systems in light of related international and regional standards and comparative experiences, focusing on those from the region and from Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

Through intensive work group discussions key stakeholders were enabled to formulate concrete recommendations to enhance the system in Palestine in line with national needs and priorities.

Those recommendations are expected to be fine-tuned and reflected in proposed amendments to the current law.

For more information on this event please go to http://www.undp-aciac.org/resources/ac/details.aspx?aid=437

By Chloe Yunes, Communication Intern, UNDP Lebanon

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13 May 2015 – Parliamentarians in Tonga begin a two-day workshop today to build their capacity to advance good governance and boost anti-corruption efforts.

Tonga is one of the five remaining Pacific nations yet to sign onto the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), and the two-day workshop under the UN Pacific Regional Anti-Corruption (UN-PRAC) Project is working with Tonga’s Parliamentarians to strengthen their understanding of UNCAC and parliamentary oversight.

The workshop is a partnership between the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), together with the Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC)) and the Parliament of Tonga assisting in this workshop.

“One of the aims of the UN-PRAC Project is to strengthen the capacity of Pacific Island countries to prevent and fight corruption through the UNCAC framework,” said Annika Wythes, Anti-Corruption Adviser – Pacific, UNODC.

For more information, click here. 

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Two public officials in Papua New Guinea have been arrested for fund mismanagement of more than 2 million US dollars. Five more are waiting for court decisions, and approximately other 250 cases are being investigated.

Revelation of these perceived corrupt practices was made possible through the new “Phones Against Corruption” initiative, launched by UNDP in partnership with PNG’s Department of Finance in 2014.

The success is significant to Papua New Guinea, where corruption severely impacts and derails country’s development. PNG features 144th out of 175 in Transparency International’s Corruption Index and is in the lowest 15% of countries dealing with corruption according to the World Bank’s Global Governance Corruption Index.

This pilot initiative introduced new corruption reporting tool – text messaging through mobile phones. The text messaging is user friendly and is free of charge, with no specific application or Internet access required. It is anonymous – it does not report sender’s information. Required information relates to Where, When and What corruption case is being reported.

All reported cases are referred to the Department of Finance through the Internal Audit and Compliance Division for further investigation in collaboration with relevant state bodies responsible for criminal investigations and prosecution.

“We as Department of Finance are accountable of public money that are going to the different sectors, provinces and districts, and this initiative will help us, at least, to minimize the risk of corruption in the management of public funds”, said Acting DOF Secretary Dr. Ken Ngangan.

“Having singular approaches to addressing anti-corruption is not enough: we have to take a much more innovative and integrated approach. Through “Phones against Corruption” initiative we want to make sure that all Papua New Guineans – for the first time – will have an opportunity to report on corruption cases that they encounter and improve current practices”, said Roy Trivedy, the UNDP Resident Representative.

The initiative is initially introduced among 1200 staff of the Department of Finance. Since its launch in July last year, more than 6 000 text messages have been received from 1500 different users, averaging 38 messages per day.

The “Phones Against Corruption” initiative is led by Department of Finance through UNDP’s Provincial Capacity Building Programme. This pilot initiative is funded by UNDP’s regional innovation fund in close collaboration with its Corporate Innovation Facility supported by DANIDA. The project also received support from the Australian Government. Now the pilot initiative is going through user-experience review, which will allow to gather users experiences related to common issues and optimize the final product.

The project is ready for scaling up at the national level. Department of Finance will handover this responsibility to the PNG’s Independent Commission Against Corruption in late 2015. In partnership with UNDP, the initiative will be opened to the general public. 

For more information, click here: http://www.pg.undp.org/content/papua_new_guinea/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2015/04/10/new-corruption-cases-uncovered-with-phones-against-corruption-initiative.html

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In the Arab states region, UNDPs’ regional anti-corruption and integrity project (ACIAC) continues to support different countries in their efforts to establish effective protection for whistleblowers against corruption, in collaboration with the Arab Anti-Corruption and Integrity Network (ACINET). In March 2015, UNDP-ACIAC supported related activities in Lebanon and Tunisia to raise awareness on new bills that are being proposed in this regard and to enable an inclusive discussion on how to advance them.

The activity in Tunisia was held on 11 March in cooperation with OECD, the Government of Tunisia and the National Anti-Corruption Commission (INLUCC). It was attended by more than 40 participants including key stakeholders from the government, parliament and civil society. It enabled them to develop a deeper understanding of the whistleblower protection bill and related international standards and comparative experiences. They were also able to formulate specific recommendations to enrich the bill and promote its adoption and effective implementation.

The other activity was held in Lebanon on 26 March in cooperation with the “Lebanese Parliamentarians against Corruption” and the “Lebanese Transparency Association” (LTA). Participants included parliamentarians and key national stakeholders. It provided them with a comprehensive update on national anti-corruption legislative efforts, with a focus on the whistleblower protection bill, while enabling them to revise and fine-tune the “citizen guide”. The guide was developed by LTA to raise public awareness and engage citizens in whistleblowing against corruption in Lebanon.

Across the region, there are many similar efforts despite the various legal and societal obstacles that face them. Such efforts seek to comply with the requirements of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), and also benefit from ACINET’s Regional Conclusions in 2009. To date, three countries have taken regulatory actions in this regard. Iraq issued an order in 2004 to protect and provide appropriate incentives to whistleblowers and is currently preparing a more comprehensive bill. In 2011, Morocco introduced amendments to the penal code to protect whistleblowers in cases related to bribery, embezzlement, and other corruption crimes. In 2014 Jordan adopted a regulation specifically dedicated to the protection of whistleblower, witnesses, informants and experts in all corruption cases.

In addition to those three countries, Saudi Arabia is currently preparing a specialized whistleblower protection bill, and has also dedicated part of the website of the National Anti-Corruption Commission to receive corruption complaints. Morocco, on the other hand has established a specific website solely dedicated to this purpose, but reserved so far for reports on corruption related complaints and furnish legal advice to small and medium enterprises (SME’s) www.stopcorruption.ma .

In parallel to these governmental efforts, civil society is playing a more active role on whistleblower protection advocating the adoption of related laws and providing various types of facilities to receive documents and follow on whistleblower protection. Active initiatives in this context are carried out by the AMAN Coalition in Palestine, Lebanese Transparency Association (LTA), Kuwait Transparency Society (KTS), and Transparency Maroc, all through the concept of ALACs(Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres), promoted by Transparency International which provides free and confidential legal advice to witnesses and victims of corruption.

By Chloe Younes, Communication Intern, UNDP Lebanon

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